Le Corbusier: Masters of World Architecture

Throughout his career, ever since he was 30, Le Corbusier has never stopped publishing books and articles-to defend himself, to attack others, at times to put forth general theories, and at times to enlighten us about his intentions or about particular facts. His texts-their style prophetic but sharp and terse, strewn with exclamation points and ellipses, but following a rigorous logic-have exercised an influence in the history of forms comparable only to that of the great theoretical writings of the Renaissance. For those who want to understand Le Corbusier, knowing his written word is as necessary as knowing his architecture.

But his writings are many and abstruse, and under an appearance of simplicity— which has misled a number of critics-hide a great complexity and an essentially dialectic content. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a guide which will consider the written and constructed parts of Le Corbusier's output as but two embodiments of the same ideas. What justifies our venture is thus an attempt at synthesis. This is no chronological account, no descriptive analysis, but a search for the meaning, the spirit.